Artist is animating "This is America" with vintage Mac software

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/09/artist-is-animating-this-is.html

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So when did he start? How long has fifteen seconds taken him?

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Meh. Kids these days…
Now, ASCII art on a VT-100 or off a line printer…

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This is either the madness from which great art springs… or simple madness. Time will tell.

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Childish Gambino…? Him…?

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Why?

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I’d say an act of self-flagellating devotion, except the altruism is soiled by the social media promotion. So, I’m going with social media promotion.

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Ah, the medium is the message, I see. Thank you.

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I have a working Macbook 170 with Macromind on it somewhere here in a box.

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It’s called “a gimmick.” If this artist had done the animation using modern equipment, it probably wouldn’t be featured on BoingBoing.

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Now this is the definition of “wonderful.”

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All animation is basically a gimmick, though, if you think of it only that way.

Personally, I think it’s kinda keen (even if the subject matter isn’t dinosaurs, but that’s just me).

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But it has the heightened gimmick of being done on a 40 year old computer. That’s the angle that tweaks it. if it had been hand drawn conventionally, or done by some other method, it just wouldn’t have been featured on BoingBoing. Except maybe if it was procedurally generated, or maybe using The Sims or something like that.

Or maybe if it had been done, stop motion, using bananas.

just look at it.

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Speaking to the naysayers as someone who makes stuff in HyperCard, MacPaint, and WorldBuilder: old Macs are fun. Hunting down old software and hardware, spelunking for manuals and figuring out how to push the limits of the medium is fun. This guy is having fun. The fact that he’s able to have fun and also share his creations with an audience that extends way beyond a handful of hobbyists is a worthy achievement; I can’t really do the same with my HyperCard games, or at least I haven’t figured out a way just yet.

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I can see why the cynicism, but OTOH, what some folks can do with rubbish software is bloody amazing.

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Yeah, I didn’t mean to come off so cynical. I do find the pixelated animation appealing.

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